vr6 heater matrix

[Walkerboy]

hi just brought a vr which needs the heater matrix doing,been told its a big job.......
is it???

[kells]

iv done it on a swift gti,was a pain in the ass, dash out job mate

not sure on a golf but imagine similar

[rubjonny]

yeah dash out on a mk3, unfortunatly the knee bar runs in front of the airbox assy so whole lot has to come out and knee bar pulled forward yo gain access to the matrix.  tip for you, dont worry about the shear bolts on the column->knee bar, disconnect and remove the column->UJ bolt (dont loose the spring) then you can pull knee bar with column still attached.

[Walkerboy]

excellent dude
a days job then????lol

[petrolh34d]

Heater matrix has gone in my VR too, and I dropped it in to a mate to replace it for me.

He said that he spent feckin ages stripping the dash out of the car, but then once he actually got down to where he could see the heater matrix, he realised he was gonna have to pull the whole air con and some other stuff out as well just to replace the matrix.

Is there no handier way to replace the matrix!?

Is this a truly massive and potentially expensive job?

[rubjonny]

basically no! dash needs to come out becasue as i say, the knee bar runs in front of the heaterbox so ytou cant pull it forward. plus if you have aircon, the pipes for it pass thru the bulkhead so these will probably need to be disconnected.

you might if you're lucky be able to pull the heaterbox back enough with the A/C pipes still attached, but it depends on the shape of the pipes at the bulkhead. i.e. if they stick straight out you can pull it out, if they angle 90degrees right at the bulkhead obv not gonna move back very far.

[Rmachines]

It is a tricky job, i have just done it my self.

I didnt need to take the cross bar out though,  i dropped the blower fan out and turned the air box down on one side,  but sure enough if its air con its a fair bit harder.  Im pretty sure it doesnt need to be disconnected,  but i guess it makes it a lot harder so might end up needing the air con out the way.

[993turbo]

Does anyone have any pics of this....?

[mmaattyyg]

I AM STRIPPING MY CAR FOR THE TRACK AND HAVE TAKEN OUT THE WHOLE DASH SO THERE IS NOTHING IN MY WAY AND I AM STILL HAVING TROUBLE GETTING THE MATRIX OUT AND THE NEW ONE IN ! IT IS A MASSIVE JOB AND I WOULD NOT ADVISE ANYONE TO DO THEM SELFS ! PAY THE MONEY AND GET IT DONE BY SOMEONE WHO HAS DONE A FEW OF THESE BEFORE. I WOULDNT PAY SOMEONE WHO HASNT DONE THESE BEFORE AS THERE ARE LOADS OF THINGS THAT CAN BE BROKEN IE LUGS ECT ! BE WARNED ITS A BIG JOB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bellend]

I AM STRIPPING MY CAR FOR THE TRACK AND HAVE TAKEN OUT THE WHOLE DASH SO THERE IS NOTHING IN MY WAY AND I AM STILL HAVING TROUBLE GETTING THE MATRIX OUT AND THE NEW ONE IN ! IT IS A MASSIVE JOB AND I WOULD NOT ADVISE ANYONE TO DO THEM SELFS ! PAY THE MONEY AND GET IT DONE BY SOMEONE WHO HAS DONE A FEW OF THESE BEFORE. I WOULDNT PAY SOMEONE WHO HASNT DONE THESE BEFORE AS THERE ARE LOADS OF THINGS THAT CAN BE BROKEN IE LUGS ECT ! BE WARNED ITS A BIG JOB !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What was that mate? Couldn't hear you.....